With more than 500 years of history, the original tamale recipe has evolved depending on the region of the country, so nowadays there are hundreds of ways to prepare them (the creativity of tamale lovers has no limits).
For this reason, we share the history of tamales, a typical dish in Mexican gastronomy.
This dish comes from the word “tamalli”, which means “wrapped” in Nahuatl, although the origin of this dish has been a topic of discussion in different Latin American countries, being Mexico the country pointed out by several historians as the cradle of this recipe.
According to the writings of Fray Bernardino de Sahagún, it is believed that it was the Mexica people who took tamales to other parts of the continent, as it was a very common food for that civilization, which had a great political and commercial dominance in the region.
According to Sahagún, the Mexica used turkey meat, flamingos, frogs, guinea pigs, rabbits and fish to fill the dough wrapped in corn husks, as well as other ingredients such as pumpkin, beans and chili.
It is also known that this dish was cooked communally to celebrate great religious festivities, such as thanksgiving for the fertility of the Earth, offerings to the dead and various social events.
On the other hand, the Novo-Hispanic historian Mariano Fernández de Echeverría y Veytia, wrote in the “Historia antigua de Méjico” that tamales were a well-known food among pre-Hispanic cultures, prepared especially by the Indians, and described them as:
“little cakes of corn dough, filled with various meat and fish stews in the shape of a bun, wrapped in the same leaves of the corn cobs, and cooked inside a clay pot without water”.
In short, Tamales are a very well known food in Mexico.
